The American Repertory Theater and Harvard University are among four universities and five performing arts organizations — all of them in former Union or Confederate territory — teaming up for an ambitious project inspired by the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

The National Civil War Project, a collaboration spurred by choreographer Liz Lerman, features newly commissioned works for the stage as well as discussions between academics and artists. The sesquicentennial of the war’s beginning in 1861 has already passed, but the project, being announced Thursday in Washington, D.C., is intended to last through 2015, 150 years after the war’s end.